*No purchase is necessary. One entry per email address per month. Along with sweepstakes entry, you will receive occasional TheraBreath newsletters containing valuable oral care tips and exclusive product savings. You may unsubscribe at any time.

Anyone that has ever chopped up or bitten into a raw onion knows exactly how powerful they can be. A robbery crew in Queens, New York has used the strong odor and eye-watering power of onions for evil rather than good. According to NYDailyNews.com, Erick Mejia (a member of a robbery crew based in Queens) has been arrested and charged with an unusual form of torture.

Erick Mejia is suspected to be involved with several robberies of drug trafficking all along the East Coast. He and his crew often posed as police officers and on a few occasions put victim’s heads into bags full of onions! Many of these attacks were violent, but the NY Daily News cites a particularly bizarre event that took place in February, 2008. The heist that took place in Raleigh, North Carolina, involved members of the robbery crew posing as law enforcement agents and stopping a drug supplier. The crew had fake badges and a car that looked like a police vehicle, equipped with police-style headlights.

The crew took a man, woman and child to a trailer home and tied them up. NYPD Detective Therone Eugene of the Drug Enforcement Administration stated that “the crew placed a bag of onions over the head of one of the male victims to induce him to reveal the location of narcotics.” We can only imagine how painful (not to mention stinky) this form of torture must have been! Detective Eugene goes on to explain, “The bag filled with cut-up onions cause the victim to experience a form of asphyxiation.” Needless to say, the onion-induced torture worked. According to court papers, the crew went back to Queens with $35,000. A second occurrence of onion torture happened in Georgia during a home invasion. The group made off with 77 pounds of cocaine and $100,000 in cash.

The group tortured their victims using other methods as well, including beatings, burnings and water submersion. To read the entire article from NYDailyNews.com, click here.

Onion torture, while odd is no laughing matter. Onions carry a very strong smell, especially when cut and can cause eye tearing and burning. On a smaller scale, when eaten, onions can linger on one’s breath for a funky stench. So be considerate to those around if you enjoy meals topped with onions and make sure to use TheraBreath products such as our mouthwashes and gums to instantly neutralize your mouth’s pH balance and leave it feeling fresh and onion-free! After all, you don’t want to “torture” the other people in your conversation, right?